A small grant to document Doukhobors in Kars, Turkey, was awarded to resident historian Vedat Akçayöz (Alchayoz), who for 15 years has advocated to protect, restore and display the heritage of the remaining sites and artifacts of over 10,000 Spiritual Christians from Russia who once lived in Kars Province.
As Director of the Kars Culture and Arts Association, he is working on a Doukhobor video documentary, photo exhibit, book, and cultural centre-museum.
The government may provide space for a long-planned Russian culture center-museum in Kars to educate the public and welcome heritage explorers. Vedat hopes to preserve classic houses in the former Doukhobortsy Pokrova village (now Porsuklu) and the former Molokan and Prygun Blagodarnoye village (now Chakmak, joined with Chalkuvar). His grandmother was Prygun.
Vedat plans to present his first Doukhobor exhibit by the end of 2013 with photos and video showing the history from origins in Old Russia, relocation to the Caucasus and Kars, burning of guns in 1895, arrests and exiling to Siberia, why and how Tolstoy aided them, migration to Canada, and those remaining in Georgia.
His major problem is language. Nearly all the information is in languages foreign to him, and he has limited access to translators. Very little Russian sectarian history was published in the Turkish language.
In September Vedat was hosted in Gorelovka, Georgia, by Nikolay Sukarukov for 3 days, from 30 August to Sept 3, 2013. Though he previously visited Georgia Doukhobors 6 times, he did not understand much of their history until this year. So he returned (~200 km, 125 miles each way) to gather missing details, photos and video.
In October he is going to Azerbaijan to try to locate the 3rd burning of arms site. This is the first effort we know of to explore this historic Doukhobor site since Tarasoff failed to find the exact site in 1977.
An international joint effort was accomplished this Spring to orientate Vedat. In April, 2013 his son Alper Akçayöz, who speaks English, stopped in Los Angeles for one day, during his first 1-week vacation in the USA. He was met by historian Andrei Conovaloff from Arizona, whose grandparents on both sides were from Kars. They toured and photographed Los Angeles Spiritual Christian historic sites. Alper collected photos and video at a wedding of a congregation from Melikoy village, the large cemetery, and met descendants of Kars Armenian Pryguny from Karakala village who sang a psalom in Armenian.
Conovaloff presented 4-hours of condensed history about Kars Spiritual Christians, which was simultaneously translated to Turkish by Alper and recorded on video for his father. He included several suggestions from Koozma Tarasoff (Canada), and Joyce Keosababian-Bivin (Israel).
First, locate the 3 historic 1895 Doukhobor burning of arms sites, and showcase the Kars site as a historic landmark. Tarasoff says this is the single most important historic location in Kars province from which Vedat can begin to introduce Doukhobor history. The burning of arms impacted all Spiritual Christians in the Caucasus.
Second, identify the village of Karakala where persecuted Protestant Armenians joined Pryguny who resettled in Kars oblast from Russia in the 1880s. Keosababian-Bivin, born in Los Angeles, is a historian of Armenian Prygun descent who has been trying for decades to find her ancestral village. This month Vedat confirmed that an old photo matches the village nicknamed Merkezkarakale (central Karakale).
In Los Angeles, Pryguny helped launch the international Pentecostal and Evangelic Christian movements, which are similar to their faiths. Prygun immigrants attended the nearby Azusa Street Revival in 1906. In the 1920s, the Armenian Apostolic congregation fellowshipped with Subbotniki and hosted Aimee McPherson, while Russian Pryguny participated in her Foursquare ministry and radio show. In the 1950s, Karakala descendant Demos Shakarian hosted the first Oral Roberts crusades in California, and launched the Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International. Several of celebrity Kim Kasrdashian's relatives, born in Karalaka, are buried in the old Prygun cemetery in East Los Angeles.
Vedat showed his first photo exhibit in 2008, then produced a video and appeared on local TV many times to promote his projects about Spiritual Christians. Last year he learned that the Turkish term malakanlar generally referred to all Spiritual Christian faith groups (molokan, prygun, dukh-i-zhiznik, dukhobortsy, subbotnik, etc.) not just Molokane.
This year Vedat realized he is a descendant of Spiritual Christian Pryguny, not Molokane, and has Dukh-i-zhiznik relatives in Russia and in Los Angeles, County, United States of America.
People in Turkey have mostly forgotten how many different faiths from Russia were in their territory during the Russian occupation (1877 - 1922), and that many descendants are Turkish citizens. Among the non-Orthodox Christian faiths resettled from Russia were:
In 2009 Vedat invited heritage explorers, and in 2011 he invited more university students to get involved in research.
So far 5 groups of Canadian Doukhobors have explored their Karakhanskiye settlements in Kars province and 4 reported in Iskra.
Now he says: ‘Who knows, maybe I can show my Doukhobor exhibit in Canada. Of course, this is a dream. Why not? Martin Luther King says to us: “I have a dream.”’
———
More news from Turkey about Doukhobors.
As Director of the Kars Culture and Arts Association, he is working on a Doukhobor video documentary, photo exhibit, book, and cultural centre-museum.
The government may provide space for a long-planned Russian culture center-museum in Kars to educate the public and welcome heritage explorers. Vedat hopes to preserve classic houses in the former Doukhobortsy Pokrova village (now Porsuklu) and the former Molokan and Prygun Blagodarnoye village (now Chakmak, joined with Chalkuvar). His grandmother was Prygun.
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| Vedat Akçayöz in the temporary museum, in his office in Kars, Turkey. The larger photos were taken in Stavropol, Russia, of families and descendants who left Kars in 1962. |
Vedat plans to present his first Doukhobor exhibit by the end of 2013 with photos and video showing the history from origins in Old Russia, relocation to the Caucasus and Kars, burning of guns in 1895, arrests and exiling to Siberia, why and how Tolstoy aided them, migration to Canada, and those remaining in Georgia.
His major problem is language. Nearly all the information is in languages foreign to him, and he has limited access to translators. Very little Russian sectarian history was published in the Turkish language.
In September Vedat was hosted in Gorelovka, Georgia, by Nikolay Sukarukov for 3 days, from 30 August to Sept 3, 2013. Though he previously visited Georgia Doukhobors 6 times, he did not understand much of their history until this year. So he returned (~200 km, 125 miles each way) to gather missing details, photos and video.
In October he is going to Azerbaijan to try to locate the 3rd burning of arms site. This is the first effort we know of to explore this historic Doukhobor site since Tarasoff failed to find the exact site in 1977.
An international joint effort was accomplished this Spring to orientate Vedat. In April, 2013 his son Alper Akçayöz, who speaks English, stopped in Los Angeles for one day, during his first 1-week vacation in the USA. He was met by historian Andrei Conovaloff from Arizona, whose grandparents on both sides were from Kars. They toured and photographed Los Angeles Spiritual Christian historic sites. Alper collected photos and video at a wedding of a congregation from Melikoy village, the large cemetery, and met descendants of Kars Armenian Pryguny from Karakala village who sang a psalom in Armenian.
Conovaloff presented 4-hours of condensed history about Kars Spiritual Christians, which was simultaneously translated to Turkish by Alper and recorded on video for his father. He included several suggestions from Koozma Tarasoff (Canada), and Joyce Keosababian-Bivin (Israel).
First, locate the 3 historic 1895 Doukhobor burning of arms sites, and showcase the Kars site as a historic landmark. Tarasoff says this is the single most important historic location in Kars province from which Vedat can begin to introduce Doukhobor history. The burning of arms impacted all Spiritual Christians in the Caucasus.
Second, identify the village of Karakala where persecuted Protestant Armenians joined Pryguny who resettled in Kars oblast from Russia in the 1880s. Keosababian-Bivin, born in Los Angeles, is a historian of Armenian Prygun descent who has been trying for decades to find her ancestral village. This month Vedat confirmed that an old photo matches the village nicknamed Merkezkarakale (central Karakale).
In Los Angeles, Pryguny helped launch the international Pentecostal and Evangelic Christian movements, which are similar to their faiths. Prygun immigrants attended the nearby Azusa Street Revival in 1906. In the 1920s, the Armenian Apostolic congregation fellowshipped with Subbotniki and hosted Aimee McPherson, while Russian Pryguny participated in her Foursquare ministry and radio show. In the 1950s, Karakala descendant Demos Shakarian hosted the first Oral Roberts crusades in California, and launched the Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International. Several of celebrity Kim Kasrdashian's relatives, born in Karalaka, are buried in the old Prygun cemetery in East Los Angeles.
Vedat showed his first photo exhibit in 2008, then produced a video and appeared on local TV many times to promote his projects about Spiritual Christians. Last year he learned that the Turkish term malakanlar generally referred to all Spiritual Christian faith groups (molokan, prygun, dukh-i-zhiznik, dukhobortsy, subbotnik, etc.) not just Molokane.
This year Vedat realized he is a descendant of Spiritual Christian Pryguny, not Molokane, and has Dukh-i-zhiznik relatives in Russia and in Los Angeles, County, United States of America.
People in Turkey have mostly forgotten how many different faiths from Russia were in their territory during the Russian occupation (1877 - 1922), and that many descendants are Turkish citizens. Among the non-Orthodox Christian faiths resettled from Russia were:
- Dukhobortsy (spirit-wrestlers), various divisions
- Dukh-i-zhiznik faiths, founded in 1928 in Los Angeles and exported to Kars
- Luidi Bozhe (God's People), various divisions
- Molokane (milk-drinkers during fasts, Lent), one faith
- Protestant Armenians who joined Pryguny
- Protestant Germans from Russia, many faiths, Anabaptists
- Pryguny (jumpers), various divisions
- Subbotniki (Saturday people), various divisions
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| Doukhobor group in Vedat's office museum, Kars, Turkey, 2011. L to R: Ken Harshenin, Eileen Kooznetsoff, Rose Ann Bartley (Hadikin), Natalie Stewart (Hadikin), Diane White (Stoochnoff), Walter Stoochnoff, (hand, leg shown), and Fred Kooznetsoff. |
In 2009 Vedat invited heritage explorers, and in 2011 he invited more university students to get involved in research.
So far 5 groups of Canadian Doukhobors have explored their Karakhanskiye settlements in Kars province and 4 reported in Iskra.
- 2007 — Ken Harshenin (Iskra #2003, Feb. 2008, pages 16-23) on Spirit-Wrestlers.com.
- 2009 — Florence Chernoff-Lymburner (Iskra #2028, March 2010, pages 14-15), expanded with colour photos on the Doukhobor Genealogy Website.
- 2010 — Carrie Eirene Stevensen, Doukhobors - Духоборы - Kars - Turkey, 7 heritage photos, on Flickr.com.
- 2011 — Group of 7 led by Ken Harshenin in photo above (Iskra #2051 - #2057).
- 2013 — Verna Postnikoff (Iskra #2070, September 2013, pages 30-32), edited with colour photos on Spirit-Wrestlers.com.
Now he says: ‘Who knows, maybe I can show my Doukhobor exhibit in Canada. Of course, this is a dream. Why not? Martin Luther King says to us: “I have a dream.”’
———
More news from Turkey about Doukhobors.
I read this story in Iskra with great interest and decided to visit the blog web site. I was very surprised to see the above photo yet you made no mention of our group's visit to Kars in June 2011.
ReplyDeleteI submitted six installments of our trip "Russian Ancestral Odyssey" (Iskra Nos. 2051 - #2057). We travelled through the villages of our Doukhobor ancestors, including Kars.
We were "heritage tourists" guided by Ken Harshenin who was the first to make a trip to Kars a number of years earlier.
Ken's experiences were published in earlier issues of Iskra. I would say that he was today's Doukhobor pioneer in exploring the Kars Doukhobor roots prior to Florence.
I met Florence after her trip to Kars at one of the USCC Doukhobor Union of Youth Festivals.
I am so happy that Vedat's project has been funded as he appeared very passionate about the preservation of artifacts in the museum.
We were fortunate to be able to bring him some items from the USCC Canadian Doukhobors to add to his collection.
Please keep us updated on his project.
Prostite nas. I added your Iskra articles above. Though I show your photo and names, we overlooked your extensive reporting and Ken's first visit. Thank you for commenting.
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